Hi all i am new to this site and hope i can have an answer to this question, i live in Cyprus and we have recently moved to our new home, i would like to start to design the garden but there is one question, can anyone help. We want to place beach stone (collected from the local beach) in the garden will the salt in the stone effect any of the plants, if they will how is best to arrange them, do they need to be washed. Thanks.

Crooks, I'm not 100% sure if there is enough salt left on rocks & things gathered from ocean beaches to bother plants, but I think that rinsing them off wouldn't be a bad idea.

Years ago, I hauled a lot of kelp home from the bays in Seattle Washington & buried it in my garden, & my vegetables grew like crazy! I've also crushed up clam shells & put that in my gardens, & have decorated garden beds with driftwood found on ocean beaches... (there was plenty of salt content in that stuff, & at the time I hadn't even thought about it having a bad effect of the plants... or I probably wouldn't have done it!) I'm guessing that there might have to be a constant leaching of salt into the soil for plant damage to occur.

(We'll want to see pics when you get done with your project, you know!)

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